Center for Painted Wall Preservation

The Rufus Porter Museum of Art and Ingenuity in Bridgton, Maine, officially opens for the summer season on June 6th.

Don't miss the chance to view their newly acquired wall murals, painted by the legendary 19th-century polymath and itinerant artist Rufus Porter.

The countdown is on! 10 days until we open!

On Saturday June 6, we will open our doors for the 2026 season. We are so excited to welcome you back to our campus. This summer is packed with amazing opportunities to get involved, whether you want to explore our new Rufus Porter murals on display, join one of our programs surrounding art and ingenuity, or peruse our freshly curated museum store. Keep an eye on our page to stay up to date and come visit us this summer!

We can't wait to see you.

Presenting
The Center for Painted Walls
Monthly 100-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
Challenge yourself with images from our archives!
For June, 2026: Burdick House, Chaplin, CT, artist unknown
Find a link to the puzzle on our website at: pwpcenter.org

In the early 19th century, an itinerant artist active in New Hampshire's Monadnock region repeatedly featured the President’s House—not yet officially known as the White House—as a centerpiece in his vibrant decorative murals. 🎨

One of the places he painted it was the Prescott Tavern in Jaffrey, NH. The tavern is long gone, but the mural fragment with the President’s House is preserved at The White House Historical Association. It shows the sun rise/set directly behind the residence. 🌅

In all known instances, the President's House is shown from the north, a view that seems to have been drawn directly from an 1820 lithograph engraved by J. L. Fredricks made after a drawing by the artist . It shows the residence with the colonnaded terraces to the right and left added by Thomas Jefferson, but without the North Portico added in 1829 by Andrew Jackson. 🏛️

After it was rebuilt following its destruction in the War of 1812, the President’s House steadily rose in prominence as a national symbol. In decorative murals, it reads as declaration of loyalty to the American Republic. 🦅

Take a look at the rhythmic beauty of this mural section from the parlor of the Silas Burbank House in Mt. Vernon, ME.

Painted in 1830 by Jonathan D. Poor—nephew of the legendary Rufus Porter—the work features airy, arching branches that feel more decorative than botanical. Poor created the vibrant green foliage with a sponge. 🌲🧽

While the murals were removed from the home in 1985, this specific section was restored by C.C. Adams and is now preserved at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library (Van Gorden-Williams Library & Archives). The remaining mural sections were donated to the Rufus Porter Museum of Art and Ingenuity.

In What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848, historian Daniel Walker Howe describes the early American republic’s obsession with “overthrowing the tyranny of distance.”

Early 19th-century Americans were fascinated by the possibility of making travel faster and easier. States raced to build canals, roads, bridges, and turnpikes that could knit together a rapidly expanding nation.

That interest in transportation appears frequently in Rufus Porter school murals.

In the anonymous murals at the Enoch Robie House, horsemen and carts move across the Essex–Merrimack Chain Bridge (built in 1810), an important crossing on the Newbury Turnpike leading toward Boston. Below, on the Merrimack River, a tall ship passes through the open drawbridge while, farther in the distance, a steamboat pushes steadily forward.

The murals preserve the energy of a young republic racing to conquer space, distance, and time.

Presenting
The Center for Painted Walls
Monthly 100-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
Challenge yourself with images from our archives!
For May, 2026:
Norton House, East Baldwin Maine, signed J.D. Poor

See our website for puzzle link at: pwpcenter.org